First Chapel Service of 2021 w/Pastor Carter Conlon

i just thank god for his great grace which he's given me all of my life and some of the things maybe that i've learned over the years i'm hoping this year to be able to impart to many of you i i would like to do a series i was talking to pastor teresa this morning that i'd like to do a series on the great falling away what is that going to look like in our generation it's a series of messages called in in defiance of the real jesus and we're just going to examine history because solomon said there's nothing new under the sun what has been already what is what is going to be already has been so we're going to take a look at what are the characteristics of a fallen humanity that would cause them to embrace an alternate jesus to the one who is so clearly revealed in scripture and how can we protect ourselves from falling into the trap of theological babbling and all of the rest of the things that will come your way and probably already are coming your way where people who have become discontent with the real jesus have chosen to craft an alternate one that is more palatable to them in their fallen condition remember the the very nature of sin sown into humanity is the ability to judge what is good and what is evil in ourselves apart from what god says is good and god says is evil and that translates right to our viewpoint on who god is and what god looks like what god demands and there are many many will arise in the last days and deceive many that's what jesus said and his words can't be contravened he saw he foresaw the future he knew what was coming there would be many who arise and say i am christ in other words they'll arise and they'll say this is what jesus christ looks like christ is in me i am in christ and if you listen to my voice and you follow me you now know what jesus looks like but they will be presenting an alternate jesus another jesus and it's a serious issue this other jesus is not a a light thing because paul the apostle said if anyone brings to you another jesus then the jesus we have preached to you let him be accursed i mean so that those are strong words those words are inspired by the holy spirit that's not just an apostle in a bad mood and on a rant writing down something in the bible he shouldn't have he that was inspired by the holy spirit so this is a serious issue that we don't join the 58 who walked away from christ and said this christ is too confusing this christ is too hard this christ i don't understand this jesus and he's asking something of me that i find uh personally difficult or abhorrent so i'm walking away they didn't walk away from our religion uh guys and girls they they just walked away from jesus and they formed another messiah they they were they were a nation looking for a messiah so not rejecting the messiah that had come and clearly was revealing himself yet they couldn't hear it yet they chose to walk away and form another messiah and this is going to be the besetting sin of the last days professing church in society of course we we know that we're in a day you and i right now that the bible has foretold i began to preach a couple of years ago in new york city that we are entering a season of a whole wholesale rebellion against the lordship of jesus christ worldwide it's not just in america it's all over the world jesus himself warned i don't know at what particular point this is going to happen but up until up till it is completely fulfilled it will be progressively begin to happen in the earth you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake and they shall deliver you up and you shall be killed now i mean this scripture obviously in afghanistan today makes a lot of sense to the believers that are there who are preparing to die and are hated for what they believe so they understand this scripture we have been relatively insulated from a lot of these harder truths in america as a matter of fact i've often said the church in america has been raised on marshmallows and now we're being sent into war we we have to as the apostle paul said in acts chapter 27 when the ship was going down and all hope was lost that they were going to be saved apart from the word of god it was paul who said now take some meat so i'm going to encourage you this year take some meat in other words take some take the truths in god's word that maybe you wouldn't be inclined to embrace or want to digest and the the harder truth some of them that the things that we we don't just find it pleasant but we find it difficult you know we want the abundant life but we don't want the abundant life to lead us to a cross you understand what i'm saying you know so we have a tendency to just gonna halfway into a lot of the scriptures and say okay that and we've craft in a sense of view of what that's going to look like but if we're going to survive and if we're going to thrive and if we're going to make a difference we have to we have to have the courage in a sense to take in the whole council of the word of god and not push away the hard truths and just gravitate to what we like and what we think god should be and what we think our futures should look like because let me tell it to you straight i would do you a disservice if i didn't you are a generation that's being raised to go into the fire you are the shadrach meshach and abednegos of this generation it is going to get very hot and it's going to be very very difficult for all of us in the future this this whole society is turning against christ it's turned dark the scales have tipped it's no longer popular to hold to a biblical world view any longer on any issue realistically i was talking to two young boys who were in school in canada 13 years of age both christians on my vacation who they uh this their classroom now is mandatory sessions on inclusion which just means you see things our way we don't see things your way and this this whole thing of inclusion was talking about uh the acceptance of uh you know bathroom rules where boys can go to girls bathrooms and girls to boys and all this crazy stuff and and these two boys they said in the classroom we we don't agree with this matter of fact they said we think this whole thing is kind of weird but we're not going to be obnoxious about it we obviously are going to be kind to all people but we simply don't agree with it next thing you know these two boys are at the principal's office their parents have been called and they're on the verge of of discipline because they have failed to be exclusive you see there's no longer any discussion in the nation it's like with the hebrew boys you either bend or you burn those are your two options that are left to you but these boys and daniel the prophet they made a decision in their youth as you're going to have to make as young people of god they decided not to defile themselves with the king's table what the secular king's table that meat which was being given to the young people and of of of their generation they said we're not going to ingest these things and there's a point where listen let me let me just tell you you got to turn off the cultural talk of this time you just have to put away the the meat that's being served on the table of this young generation and say as as opposed to that i'm going to get my value system is going to come from the word of god the truth i'm not going to fall to this concept of your truth and my truth there is only one truth that truth is in the word of god and that truth is the word of god i am the way the truth and the life no man comes to the father except through me said jesus so i'm going to embrace the truth of god as the only truth i'm going to embrace it as it's written i'm going to pray for the grace to to read it in the manner that god can speak to me what he wanted my heart to hear and i'm going to yield my life for his purpose now all of that generation who ate the king's meat and all of the young people of that time there were other people that had a heritage a godly heritage but most if not all bent and bowed before the golden statue of their time this this image of man that man always wants to create and have all of society bend before it and we don't know any of their names do we none of them but we do know the names of the three who didn't bend and those who bent and bowed before the common thought of their society they just faded off into obscurity i don't know what their eternity would or would not be but the three who didn't were able to change the laws of the nation were able to influence their society but they had to go through the fire first you understand it's going to take courage to stand it's not going to be easy if you hold to a biblical world view of marriage you might not be able to hold to a job in the future you might have to trust god for your provision there's you're going to be threatened in the workplace it's going to be very very difficult um if if some of you go on from here into secular professions or college you're going to be scorned ridicule mocked laughed at you're going to be called a hater and a bigot and a divider you're going to be considered a person that is of no value to society because you hold to a view the view of christ you hold to the word of god now i have a word for you that god gave me during my vacation for for today and it's beginning in psalm 2. if you want to go there in your bible with me in psalm psalm 2. so father i just want to thank you god for your word your word is a lamp for our feet and the light for our path you tell us that the entrance of your words gives light and so god almighty would you would you help us to just simply open our hearts and open the doors of our minds not just in this chapel but all throughout the year god speak to us speak to us lord lord we don't want to be insignificant players in this end time battle for truth and for the souls of men and women and children we want to make a difference but we recognize that without truth we can't our lamps won't have oil and we won't be able to show people the way to life so give us courage today that we're going to need for tomorrow give us resolve that we're going to embrace the real cross the real christ the real pathway the real truth and the real purpose for our lives help us lord jesus christ and we thank you for it in your precious name and give me the grace lord to speak this amen psalm 2 why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing the kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the lord and against his anointed now that's exactly where we are living today rulers and leaders are taking counsel together the council the direction they're heading in is against christ and against those who are called by his name and they're saying let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their cords from us so here's here's what we are facing today we're facing a godlessness that has gotten into some measure it's never an ultimate authority because god's in ultimate authority but this godlessness has gotten a hold of many in leadership positions whether it's in corporations or schools or government wherever it is and the ultimate goal is to take away the restrictions on behavior that the presence of god implies in society in people and families and homes you know the word of god says that we should not fornicate and all that means sex outside of marriage and all fornicators they don't belong in the kingdom of god the word of god calls adultery sin a sin that that that brings a stain that just doesn't go away and you know i can just go on and on the scripture says no no thief will inherit the kingdom of god i mean we go on they don't want these restrictions on their behavior so the result is that they get together and say let's impose a new world order let's impose a new value system on this society and let's break the bonds that these people who say they know god have placed on our society that have restricted our behaviors let's call evil good and let's turn around and call good evil and this is where we're living today this is the day that we are going into now listen to god's response to this he who sits in the heavens shall laugh the lord shall hold them in derision in other words he he will let them go into confusion and who can debate but that we are in confusion in america today there seems to be confusion on almost every level in society right now there's i don't think there's any debating that i see the hand of god in the confusion that america has now experienced the shame of face that we're now experiencing even with the debacle in afghanistan he shall speak to them in his wrath and distress them in his deep displeasure so god's already on the move and he's already saying i'm not going to let this prosper yes they will raise their voice and yes they will stand against the people of god and yes they will try to cast away all cords that the word of god puts on human behavior but god says i'm going to confuse them i'm going to confound them and then i'm going to start speaking to them in my displeasure i don't fully understand what all of that is going to look like but i'll tell you one thing i would not want to be in the position of god speaking to me in his displeasure he has the power to cast into outer darkness you understand is the power to bring a judicial blindness even on governments his his speech cannot be contravened nobody can stand against the word of god when he speaks it must be done now the rest of this psalm speaks about christ it speaks about god's response to this it speaks about a messiah so but as the body of christ we are the co-inheritors as it is because we sit with him in heavenly places at the right hand of god he is the head we are the body so we in a sense and i want to look at it in that context become co-inheritors of what god speaks that he's going to do through his son so let's take a look at these verses yet i have set my king on my holy hill of zion so this is the first thing that i believe that you and i need to do if we're going to make a difference in this generation i've already spoken about that in other words we are determined in our heart there's going to be one king in my life there's going to be one voice that speaks there's one path there's one direction there's one place i'm going to go as christ obeyed his father knowing he was born to die as christ obeyed his father and even in the garden of gethsemane even though he did not want to do the thing he was called to do yet in obedience to his father he said not my will but thine yet have i set my king upon my holy hill of zion it's interesting that this school used to be called zion in the beginning before the name was changed to summit and i want to challenge you that in this year that you are here or two years whatever your situation is that you set jesus on the in the proper place in your heart and in your life you are my king even if you go tonight to your room and you pray that and say jesus you are my king you have the right to my life you purchased me with your blood you are truth all truth is found in you the purpose of my life will only be found when i begin to acknowledge you not just as savior but as lord of my life as lord of my life god help me to yield the reigns of my life help me my god to to give up my own plans and dreams and ambitions help me not to fall into the trap of trying to refashion you into a god that i find suitable for my future you have a future for me and i'll tell you straight out most everybody here if not all you don't know what that future is none of us do only god knows and we'll never get to where we need to go if he's not the king he has to have the right he has to have the right to speak into our hearts we we we go to our knees one night we or we sit on the edge of our bed and we just are we think we're having just our regular devotions and suddenly just something from god something of heaven drops into our soul a country a culture a people a purpose a meaning something you never considered before god drops it into your soul because that is his will for your life i had a young actress one time come to christ at times square church and she was so excited she was a front row christian she was dancing and jumping up and down and she would come to me after most every service and say it's so exciting i found god i found christ as my savior i've been looking for this all of my life and then i noticed over time she started kind of sliding back third row fourth row and then one sunday after service she came to me she said god can't ask he can't possibly be asking me to do this i said asking you to do what she said to give up my acting career it's been my dream it's been my passion since i was a child it's been all i've ever loved and longed for and wanted to do and he can't be possibly asking me to do this tell me she said to me that he's not asking me to do this i said i can't tell you that i can't tell you he's not asking you to do that because only you know for sure what god is asking but i can tell you that if he is asking you to give up something he has something better for your life he has something that he's destined for your life and and she remember the last time i spoke to her she looked at me and she said after i had shared this with her she said no it can't be that he's he was willing to embrace a jesus that would enhance her acting career she was not willing to embrace a jesus that would ask her to give it up for another reason and for another purpose and she eventually the last time i saw her she was at the back of the church then i never saw her again she just disappeared back into in a sense back into the ocean that she had come from she'd found the savior but she found a savior that initially wasn't asking anything of her and when he did she backed up and backed away and so my challenge to you this year is is set your heart on this hill this hill of zion which which you know in type in a sense it's calvary it's the cross set your heart there we belong to him he's the savior he has the rights he has the plan he knows what will bring fulfillment not just to us but through us for the sake of others he knows he knows the plan he has he knew it before you even came to him he foreknew you he knew what he had destined you to do and it's and most often it's way out of the box of our thinking i can speak that from experience most of what i've done all my life i've never thought i could ever do it it was simply god as i began to seek him the doors began to open so set your heart on the hill of zion verse 7 he says i will declare the decree the lord has said to me you are my son today i have begotten you i will declare the decree this is point number two he is my lord but i will agree with him as to what he speaks about me i am according to second corinthians chapter 5 verse 21 the righteousness of god in christ jesus now that would be blasphemous if it weren't true if it weren't written in the bible in other words i'm as clean as god is in christ jesus so i'm not going to live my whole year listening to the voice of the condemour do you understand i am done with the condemner jesus christ is my king his blood bought me he has cleansed me i am as righteous as god is through jesus christ yes i struggle and yes i fail but every time i fall he picks me up he carries me forward because he has a divine plan for my life and i am not going to live under the voice of the condemner i am a child of god i belong to jesus christ heaven is my home my name is written in the lamb's book of life i will rule and reign with christ for all of eternity i will declare the decree i will declare it the devil can he'll keep you under his condemning voice all year and you'll become discouraged and you'll not grow and you'll not be able to hear from god because every day you'll just be pointing out you're you only prayed for 58 minutes it wasn't an hour you said a nasty thing to that person you weren't kind you didn't give five dollars here it would be all day it will never end but at some point we have to agree with god i will declare the decree i am who god says i am hallelujah to the lamb of god glory to god thank god in verse 8 he says now ask of me and i will give you the nations for your inheritance and the ends of the earth for your possession in john chapter 16 jesus said to his own disciples you haven't asked anything of me up to this point ask now and he said and you shall receive. that your life might be full you'll have joy you will ask you see when you when christ is your king and we recognize who we are in christ we understand we have a divine commission then we begin to ask for the things that god has determined to do through our lives hallelujah and suddenly heaven begins to open and suddenly he says ask of me and i'll give you the nations for your inheritance the ends of the earth for your possession ask of me ask to be think bigger than you've thought so far thus far in your life don't put limits on god kick the sides out of that box that culture and time and family and even your own perception is put around you kick those kick those sides down and say god i'm yours you want to send me to india send me to india whatever you want to do through my life god do it through my life and help me to always go through every door ask of me i'll give you the nations for your inheritance glory to god glory to god glory to god glory doesn't mean you're doesn't mean you're going to live in every place in the world it means everywhere you go there's going to be something of the kingdom of god born through your life verse 9 he says you shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them to pieces like a potter's vessel in other words god says i am going to give you spiritual authority everywhere you go because you know who i am you know who you are you know the meaning of your life you know your purpose in second corinthians chapter 10 and verse 4 paul says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in god for pulling down strongholds casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of god and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of christ and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled being ready being ready to stand being ready to go into the fire being ready to say to any heathen king if if if god god can deliver me if he wants to but even if he doesn't i trust him and i believe that there's a divine purpose to it i'm not bending my knee to the gods of this generation but i'm bringing the god of this universe into this situation and i'm going to pray and i'm going to speak and i'm going to stand and i'm going to believe as the scripture says the weapons of my warfare are not carnal but they're mighty in god to the pulling down of strongholds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of god and those of you who know my history and the places throughout the world that god has sent me you know this in my life i know this to be true i've been in places of war i've been in places where i shouldn't be i've been in places where the strongholds were so deep and so powerful but not that nothing but the presence of god could bring them down but i've lived long enough to see this scripture fulfilled and it started in just the early years of just saying jesus you're my king and i'm not interested in the other jesus of those who choose to take another path those who choose they don't like the god of the bible and they don't like the demands of the god of the bible so they try to take this jesus apart as the children of israel did when they came out of egypt and when the presence of the lord through moses seemed to be distant they took the spoils in the sense that god had given them and they fashioned a god that they could see and a god that they could carry and a god that they could point at a god that they could lead and i want to tell you humanity doesn't change people come to christ and are given giftings and they take the mind he's given them and they now start fashioning another jesus a jesus that doesn't judge a jesus that doesn't send anybody to hell a jesus that demands no sanctification or holiness that you know i could just go on and on and we're seeing it in our generation on steroids now but i've set my keg on my holy hill of zion this is where this is where it begins you have to put a stake in the ground it's it's really that simple you just i don't care how you do it but you put a stake in the ground maybe you want to go out in the field and find a branch and stick it in the ground or just symbolically do it but say this this is where you become my king i'm going to serve the real christ i'm going to take the pathway of the real christ i'm going to declare who i am through the real christ i'm going to start asking the real christ for his purpose and will in my life and i'm going to believe god for the power to make a difference in this generation i'm not going to bow before this golden statue of this time in the theological apostasy of this present church age i'm going to stand and walk with jesus and i don't care if i'm hated let them call me what they want to call me they called the master of the house beelzebub how much more them of his household that's what he said so don't expect to be loved but do expect that people will be born again and come into the kingdom of god do expect that the weakest among us will be filled with the holy ghost with the evidence of speaking in other tongues do expect that through your life god will begin to do things that that only he could do i've been there i've come home and i'm just saying you gotta know you gotta walk it you gotta see it you gotta you gotta take the chance you gotta go through the door it's really just that simple by god's grace this will be that kind of a year so father i want to thank you god i want to thank you for the young men and women in the sabbatical students and and others in this school we are not the only game in town but god we're in the game and we want to thank you that by your presence and power we will fulfill our calling all of us whatever it is you've called us to do wherever you called us to go whatever you've called us to be we yield our lives afresh and anew to you and we simply start the day by declaring you to be king because if you aren't then all the learning in the world won't make any difference you have to be king first and so lord we settled it in our hearts you're king of our past our present and our future you bought us with your blood and living for you is simply reasonable you call it our reasonable service so god i thank you thank you lord jesus christ that you will do something here this year perhaps deeper than it has ever been done before if we will let you god we thank you in jesus name i'm going to ask the worship team to come if you would please and not i'm i want to give you an opportunity to respond you know for some it might mean something to come and kneel at this altar for others you don't have to it's a heart issue you know we can get into postures but it means nothing if it's not in the heart it's a heart issue i i did this i was 28 i guess 26 somewhere around there and some of you know the story and some of you don't but i was in a church and a pastor preached a message that really touched my heart and it concluded with a an altar call to to give your your future your all your everything to god for his purposes and there was an affluent church of about 700-800 people they had all the history they had the christian families i didn't come from a christian family they they seemed to have it all together at least on the outside they looked good and they had big bibles and they acknowledge i had a jean jacket a beard a royal canadian mounted police bible that i had been given in police college and in a bad temper and i selfish to the core of my being and i had so many issues in my life that had to be worked out i was the last person that i thought would ever ever ever god would ever want [Music] but i was so shocked everybody stood up and nobody moved i thought these folks have it all together they've got all the knowledge they've got the they've got the history they they understand the scriptures i don't even know what the old testament is but nobody moved and i found it so sad so i thought i felt like uh isaiah in chapter six when when he's looking around when the lord says who will go for us and like all these created beings i mean if i was there i think if that thing with six wings went somebody would listen to him or her whatever it was and and and but nothing nobody answered and then he's the worst he's in the worst condition in the whole room and a lot of people think he's up jumping down here might send me and i think it was like well if nobody else will go i'll go and that's why i felt that day and i was sitting over here in this center road near the back and i just got up all by myself and i came down and another guy came down it was two of us out of 800 people came forward and i got on my knees and i just started to cry and i said god i have nothing to give you the little boy i remember my prayer i said the little boy in scripture had at least some loaves and fishes i don't even have that i mean i've got nothing i can't speak publicly i i don't really even like people let alone love them [Music] i don't care about people i was just going through the list of like like i i have nothing i i just and i remember my prayer i said but god if you can use nothing here i am you can have me and it was that day i just said god you're my king jesus you you you want to use this thing you use it [Music] but it's going to have to be real and it's going to have to be you because i can't do this thing i don't know how to do it [Music] you know the interesting thing is i'm invited to speak in that church and i have an open invitation to go back i'm going to go back in about a month or two and speak there 40 years later and they don't know i was even ever there i'm going to start my message by saying it's so good to be back here again after having traveled the world i've seen hundreds of thousands of people come to christ [Music] and so don't let anything stop you from making him king nothing don't start looking at what you don't have because it doesn't matter he doesn't need anything you have he doesn't need your strength he doesn't need doesn't care about your weakness it's going to be all him and you watch what god will begin to do hallelujah

Channel: Summit International School of Ministry

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Id: 3T-X6cEwSW8

Length: 33min 14sec (1994 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 03 2021