November 18, 2018 - Carter Conlon - From A Mess To An Enduring Message

father I thank you god this morning with all my heart Lord you are calling us to something much deeper than what we have realized in the past give us the grace Oh God to hear your word give us the grace to respond to your call give each of us Lord faith in our hearts to believe that you can take us Lord no matter where we are and take our mess and create an enduring message from it Oh Lord you're the same yesterday today and forever you show us the patterns in scripture of how you work through any surrendered vessel and you bring them and you bring us to a place of understanding that you've not changed your calling again to another generation you're calling to another group of people like us who know that we need you but Lord you're able to do so much more than we can even think or imagine or ask so let faith arise in our hearts God give me your anointing to speak this and give us the anointing to hear it Lord lift us out of a consumer mentality and bring us into the reality of a living relationship with the Living God and father we thank you for this with all of our heart in Jesus name from a mess to an enduring message Nehemiah chapter 1 beginning at verse 2 then Hannah and I one of my brethren came with men from Judah and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped who had survived the captivity and concerning Jerusalem in other words this this man is in a different place than that testimony that was once established by God in the earth in Jerusalem and he's simply asking the messengers who have come what what is the condition of the testimony of God among his people in Jerusalem and they said to me the survivors who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach the wall of Jerusalem is also broken down and as gates are burned with fire so it was when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned for many days I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven in other words that which that which marks the boundaries were the people of God those who are called of God to be a praise in the earth that would there has to be a separation folks if you're if you're living for God if you're called of God there's a separation the old things are passed away and behold all things have become new there were certain things you could do before but now as a believer in Christ you're called to be separated from these things and separated unto God and the report that came back was the wall is down the separation is down it's it's it's like somebody in our generation it just comes into your heart Oh God what has happened to your church your church that used to be separated and holy a church that used to pray and believe for miracles well what happened to your people how did the wall get broken down how come there's no line of demarcation why is the divorce rate as rampant in the church today as it is in the world that surrounds it what happened to us as a people why are we in such reproach why is it so that our voices are not even sought after and if we speak were mocked what happened to the fear of God in the nation what did we do what was our responsibility in this whole thing and he says the gates are burned with fire in other words our ability to to keep out what's trying to get in and destroy the nation and destroy the testimony of God our ability to keep it out is gone not only are we no longer separated from the people around us but we have no power to fight against this onslaught of hell this absolute tsunami of evil it wants to baptize our society and filth and so it was when I heard these words I sat down and wept I'm mourned for many days I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven you see this is this is when the call of God begins in somebody's life is is it's when people like you and finally say god I can't sit back and do nothing about this this is not right your name is in reproach it's not right that children are being thrown in the river of confusion it's not right that I should be living for myself and he had a good job he's living in the foreign king's palace is the cupbearer to the king he's got access to the court he probably has a real nice apartment somewhere in the becky's he's got it made really in a figurative sense until the day that this report comes into his heart until the day that the Spirit of God begins to move on an ordinary man to do something extraordinary for the kingdom of heaven and I said verse 5 I pray Lord God of heaven oh great and awesome God you who keep your covenant and mercy with those who love you and exert and observe your Commandments please let your ear be attentive and your eyes be open that you may hear the prayer of your servant which I pray before you now day and night for the children of Israel your servants and confess the sins of the children of Israel which we have sinned against you both my father's house and I have sinned we've acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commandments the statutes nor the ordinances which you commanded your servant Moses remember I pray the word that you commanded your servant Moses saying if you are unfaithful I will scatter you among the nations but if you return to me and keep my Commandments and do them though some of you were cast out to the farthest part of the heavens yet I will gather them from there and bring them to the place which I have chosen as a dwelling for my name now these are your servants and your people whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand ho Lord I pray please let your ear be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who desire to fear your name and let your servant prosper this day I pray and grant him mercy in the sight of this man for I was the king's cup bearer you see this is the reaction of a godly person it's the reaction of you it's the reaction of me when God begins to speak about something that's supposed to be an enduring message but it has become a mess it could be your own life today you might be sitting here saying god I believe I was created for more than what I've become I believe that my life is called to be a testimony of who you are it's called to be a message to a generation but instead it's turned out to be a mess but Lord I'm starting to understand that if I will pray if I will humble myself and pray and if I will seek your face and the fiber willingness to turn from my wicked ways you promised me in Scripture that you will hear my prayer you will forgive my sin and you will heal my life and my land it's the person that says I'm not living here anymore I've lived here long enough I'm giving myself an eviction notice today I'm not living like this I'm not living in these pursuits I'm not living in mediocrity I'm not living in self-focused I'm not living in mixture I'm not living to seek and serve myself and find my own comfort when the name of Christ is being reproached in the nation by God's grace I'm going to get up today and I'm going to become everything that God's calling me to be and I'm going to believe in the strength of my Christ the Living God inside this earthen vessel all things are now possible to him who believes I believe that no matter how big the mountain is or how deep the roots are that of a rotten tree system going to the ground by the faith of Christ's victory I believe that mountain can be moved I believe that tree can be uprooted and I believe that I can become I can and will become the man the woman that God has created me to be in my life at the end of my days is not going to be some mediocre whispering the dust by the grace of God my mess is going to turn into an enduring message not just a message but a message that lasts after I'm dead a message that people are still talking about after I'm gone a message that my family will talk about it will change the course of my family when I get up to walk with God I'm believing that with all my heart I'm believing that my son's wife husband daughters grandchildren cousins whoever it is are going to walk with you Lord because I make the choice today I make the choice I live for the moment you might say today when my grandchildren long after I'm gone said you had to have known my grandma or my grandpa my grandmother my grandfather God raised that man God raised that woman up brought them out of obscurity put a new song inside his or her heart which many began to see in fear and trust in the Lord and we walked today with God because that chain of iniquity in our house that mess and our family lineage was broken because somebody got up and said I'm going to pray and when God speaks I'm going to move and when God moves things are gonna change healing is going to come president doors are gonna open old ways of living are going to pass away it's the kind of a person today maybe was your maybe your family is not in a master but your community around you is and it's the kind of a person that says god I don't want to be a non participant in the work of heaven I don't want to be passing through society every day and as the scripture says I'm supposed to pass through the valley of weeping and make it a pleasant place or a well the scripture says God I don't want to be passing through the valley of weeping and as I pass through everybody weeping after I passed through I want to make a difference in my community I want to make a difference in my workplace I want to make a difference in my apartment building my god I want to live for you I want your presence in my life I want your wisdom God to be in the center core of my being maybe it's somebody here today that your calling is bigger than that it's for a nation your calling is to affect your city it's to affect your state maybe you're already in a place of influence in a political sense but not in a spiritual sense and God speaking to your heart today because there's so much more that he wants to do through your life we live in a society today that is broken down and it's amounting to much less than God intended it to be but he has left you and I here we are the answer from God for the dilemma of the moment that we now are facing Lia Maya in his prayer is someone who accepts responsibility for the situation and hears God calling him or her to make a difference he doesn't blame somebody else we're living in a society of blame everybody's blaming somebody these people are responsible those people are responsible he did it to me she did it to me everybody is passing the buck and everybody's blaming somebody else but not in the Amaya nehemiah said no we my father's house and I have sinned against you in as much as I'm not part of the solution I'm part of the problem that's what he was saying we've sinned against you God because our lives are not making the difference that they should be making I'm in a foreign king's palace and I'm bringing him his plate of food every day and I'm bringing him his cup to drink and that's all that my life to this point has amounted to all people might notice what I'm doing they might notice me walking up to the throne but there was a sense that came into his heart my life is is destined for more than this God you're going to do something more but first first I have to accept my responsibility for the situation folks if the nation is perish it's time for you and I to accept the responsibility for it it's time for you and I say god this is because of your house and I'm part of your house your house is not stood the way it should stand 120 people in the book of Acts stepped out of the upper room and eventually Rome bent its knee to Christ took down the most powerful army on the face of the earth we can have a hundred and twenty churches on every block and not affect our community we have to take responsibility for what we have become as the people of God we can't keep blaming somebody else for this situation if the city perishes is because I have not been the fullness of the testimony of God that I'm called to be Leo Maia begins to pray he begins to ask that God would give him favor in the sight of this foreign King and in Chapter two we see his next prayer which I'm gonna I'm gonna show you the sequence of how he prayed and how that will mirror itself in the life of any of us about the courage to pray like this man prayed the courage to say God it's this simple I want to make a difference I don't want to just live thinking about myself any longer I want to make a difference I want my life to count I want heaven to be populated because of me and health to be depopulated because of me I want people to be up to throw in one day that can hug me and I can hug them and we can weep together as long as tears are allowed before we get into heaven and we can thank God and we can dance as we sang we can rejoice in the presence of the Son of God I want my life to make a difference I don't want to wind up there with my basket empty and now the King said to me in chapter 2 verse 4 what do you request so I prayed to the God of heaven and I said to the king if it pleases the King and if your servant has found favor in your sight I ask that you send me to Judah to the city of my father's tombs that I may rebuild it and the king said to me the Queen also sitting beside him how long will your journey be and when will you return so it pleased the king to send me and I set him a time furthermore I said to the king if it pleases the King let letters be given to me for the governors of the region beyond the river that they must permit me to pass through till I come to Judah and a letter to a South the keeper of the Kings forest that he must give me timber to make beams for the gates of the Citadel which pertains to the temple for the city wall and for the house that I will occupy and the King granted me them according to the good hand of my god upon me here's where we start when we start to pray god I want to make a difference but I'm asking you for two things protect me on this journey and give me provision for what you've called me to do and those are good things to ask for I remember when I was a young believer in Christ feeling the calling of God Lord protect me was the cry of my heart God protect me from everything would come to discourage me particularly God from every weapon of Hell that will be formed against me and my family as I rise up I recognize that I've been going into a spiritual conflict and give me the provision that need Lord for I don't have what it takes to do this that was my constant prayer it still is today I don't have what it takes to do this but O God you do and so give me the provision and God delights to give you what you need all things all things all things are available to those who ask ask and it will be given you seek and you shall find knock and will be open to you ask James says if you need wisdom ask and God will give it liberally to you and freely if you ask for the right reason not to consume it upon yourself but for the purposes of God in the earth Nehemiah chapter four verses four and five as he starts heading out on his journey he now prays a specific prayer because the mockers rose up and they said well even if he builds a starts to build something even if a fox goes up on it he will break down their stone while it's that voice it's that mocking voice that comes to say who do you think you are to believe that God will use you what kind of a testimony do you think you're gonna build what kind of a separation is going to come to people's lives or victory because of you what you're trying to build even if a fox little light fox runs on it it's going to fall down and Nehemiah praises that here O God for we are despised and turn their reproach on their own heads is Nehemiah chapter 4 verse 4 and give them as plunder to a land of captivity do not cover their iniquity and do not let their sin be blotted out from before you for they have provoked you to anger before the builders and when you set out to serve God and to make a difference the mockers will come and they'll come in different forms some of the markers will directly accuse you pride they will accuse you of all kinds of things some of the mockery will cut will be demonic but you'll hear laughter some of it will come from your own heart am i reading on a journey has God really spoken to me is my life really gonna make a difference but nevertheless he prayed he prayed God turned the reproach on their own heads in other words do something through my life that would cause these evil voices to gnash their teeth and to mourn before you when they see that your hand has been on my life and what you've done through me next nehemiah prays for strength and for discernment in verse 7 of chapter 4 says it happened when son ballot Tobiah the arabs and the ammonites the asteroid is heard that the walls of Jerusalem were being restored and the gaps were beginning to be closed they became very angry and all of them conspired together to come and attack Jerusalem and create confusion nevertheless we made our prayer to God and because of them we set a watch against them day and night Oh God give me strength I can't tell you how many times I've prayed that over the years I don't know if I don't know if the math in my head goes that high Oh God give me strength have you prayed that lately oh god help me to understand which voice is from you and which voice is not from you God clear up the confusion the enemy has come to create confusion in my mind and trying to imitate your voice and the voice of the condemned er as well so God give me strength you in the early years I prayed one prayer consistently it was the one prayer that Jesus seemed to answer all the time I used to be an avid runner with my youth when I was a young Christian my whole time I prayed Jesus helped me Jesus help me Jesus help me Jesus help me that would be my whole prayer and you know what he answered it he helped me in chapter 6 and verse 9 now the next stage of his prayer is he prays for strength against accusation of having false or hidden motives in other word the people said you've established prophets to announce that you are the new king in Jerusalem and in Judah then I sent to him saying no such things as you say are being done chapter 6 verse 8 but you invent them in your own heart for they're all trying to make us afraid saying their hands will be weakened in the work and that will not be done now therefore O God strengthen my hands God keeping my motives pure and what you've called me to do don't let me go astray and don't let me be taken down by the accusations of wicked people when you set out to rebuild the testimony of God you will be opposed you set your watch by it you're going to find out there is a devil you're going to find out there is a spiritual warfare you're going to find out also the devil's afraid of you you know that he's afraid of you he's afraid of every saint every child of God that rises up and say Lord I'm asking you to build something through my life that can't be done by human means it can only be supernaturally done he will oppose you with everything conceivable you will fight when I came here to New York City yeah I was told I would fight in my mind but I had no idea the fight was going to be that intense I remember one time being down on 51st year at 8 I was going to cross over to the parking garage and I heard an audible voice like an audible voice say you're finished here your time here is over it was so shocking that was corset we know that's the devil that was like 18 years 19 years ago I'm still here the amount chapter 6 and verse 14 he prays against the fear of physical harm God my god remember to buy and son valid according to these their works in the prophetess no dial and the rest of the prophets who would have made me afraid now here's what they were saying hide yourself they're gonna kill you hide yourself that your public ministry that God's given you is going to the enemies of God are going to kill you to try to stop the ministry I've heard that one before do you know that so the wall was finished on the 25th day of e law that's chapter 6 verse 15 and 52 days 52 days 52 days the wall around about Jerusalem was rebuilt a miracle even the enemies of God had to admit that the hand of God was upon this man and upon the people that had risen up to rebuild the testimony of God in the earth in their time verse 16 says it happened when all our enemies heard of it and all the nations around us saw these things they were very disheartened in their own eyes for they perceived that this work was done by our God Oh God send an awakening in our generation Oh God push back our enemies in this generation Oh God send our children free in this generation Oh God heal our homes in this generation push back evil and bring righteousness back within our borders again Oh God brings up your chance again in this generation god help us to get out of self focus and poverty of spirit and bring us back to an understanding of who it is that lives inside of us then we have power to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt us we empowered and rise up and push back this agenda of Hell that wants to swallow a whole society all these things Paul says in Corinthians happens to the people of God as examples to us upon whom the ends of the age have come these stories in the Bible when God speaks about using an old man a young girl a bankrupt man called Gideon who lives in the smallest house in the smallest tribe the smallest family with an idol in his backyard and yet God calls him and says you have incredible resource because my word is with you in chapter 9 a new kind of prayer arises the whole chapter is a chapter of God Nehemiah and others giving praise a chorus of praise for the victory this is the cry of my heart this the prayer I prayed for this church that one day we're just going to dismiss early on Sunday we're going to go out on Broadway and we're going to sing only God could have done this only God could have done this only God could have done this the whole chapters of chapter praise and glory and victory and that's the check that's the song you'll see you will have a chapter 9 in your life if you get up today and say I'm going with God I'm gonna let God use me I'm going to rebuild that wall of separation I'm gonna put up the gates to keep hell out of my life and out of my family and my testimony if you will get up and make that Commission that dedication of God this day you will have a chapter 9 moment I'm having mine right now and home all I can do now is walk around say God you've been so good I haven't deserved anything but look what you've done look what you've done Lord look at how you've done it look at the miracles you've done I've seen it all over the world I've seen it down my own home I'm taking my two oldest grandsons to Ireland this June - Jane in a National Conference then we're going to Scotland where I'm going to be speaking in Scotland as well both those boys love God one of them feels that God's called him as he's called his grandpa Oh [Applause] from a mess when you you get a copy of this book and you're gonna see the mess I was in you see my marriage was a mess for the first ten years a lot of heartache and harm even done through my hand but oh god is so faithful God is so faithful when you just rise up and say Lord build something through my life that will last do something that will endure I just don't want to be a picture on the wall of my house after I'm dead I don't know how you feel who have you grandchildren walk and say who's that I'm gonna be more than a picture on a wall I want something in my life that long after I'm dead if the Lord tarries it it it will just linger so through the corners in my family it will it will it will be forwarded children that are not born yet children that would be born of my grandchildren will remember who the great-grandfather was will read this book and say God if you can do that for my great-grandfather you can do that for me that's called a legacy that's called an enduring message that's called something that just doesn't die with me and that's available to everyone here God is no respecter of persons whatsoever it's available to the hungry heart it's available to the person who's willing to press through the crowd and not care what anybody says not care who tries to turn them back it's available to the person who's who knows they can't see a way forward and that the side of the road that he said Jesus son of David have mercy on me and they don't care Oh tell them to be quiet that's who gets the victory is something of the heart it's the heart this is God I want my life to count for you for your kingdom for the sake of your name first for my family second for the community for the nation and maybe even for this world who knows because there are no limits with God then in chapter 13 I'll close with this the lust near the end of the book of Nehemiah he's praying another prayer at the end of his life verse 14 he says remember me oh my god concerning this and do not wipe out my good deeds that I've done for the house of God and for its services don't let me be forgotten don't let the things that you've used me to do disappear when I do don't let the wall be broken down let it stand let it be known and you know that God answered his prayer right because we're talking about him thousands of years later God answered him we're talking about he said don't let the good that I've done for the house of God don't let it don't let it fade don't let it be forgotten verse 22 second half of the verse it says remember me oh my god concerning this also and spare me according to the greatness of your mercy in other words don't let me blow it at the end you've used my life to do great good for your kingdom sake now don't let me fail of the grace of God at the end keep me Lord until I draw my last breath let the testimony remain let it be a message that lasts let it be an enduring message don't let it falter at the end and the last verse of Nehemiah he prays one last prayer he says remember me oh my god for good remember me O God and let good be done let others be provoked to do good and here we have his story recorded in the Word of God it's like God said done done everything you've asked me for I've given you you were just an ordinary guy doing an ordinary job in an ordinary place and suddenly you open your heart to my voice and you heard me calling you to do something extraordinary and you got up I gave you a favour with the king and I protected you and I gave you provision and I kept you from the voices I kept you from the fear I did a work that could only be done by the hand of God I gave you a new song of praise and glory I gave you wisdom you read the book you'll see he was given great wisdom after the wall was built in resetting that society in its proper order and I answered your prayer at the end of your life and I gave you I took you to a mess and I took you through a mess and at the end I gave you an enduring message praise be to God [Music] and so that's the crowd my heart today it's not for me it's for you you are God's answer to this dark moment we're now living in you are the answer there will be no Angels flying through heaven preaching the gospel there's a work that only you can do it will start with something coming into your heart it leads you to pray something impossible that only God can do he was a cup bearer not an architect he knew how to bring a cup of juice or wine to the king he knew how to taste it in case it was poison so he would die first yet he ends up building a wall leading people just an ordinary guy like you the ordinary person and suddenly something starts stirring in the heart I know that feeling had happened to me when I was young a sense that your life is destined for more than what you think it is and you will go farther than you think you will go and God will do more than you've ever thought he could do this is my legacy to you this is the message God gave me and I preached it here as senior pastor here for 18 years and overall for about 25 soon this is the message the Lord can take anyone now the question is do you believe it do you believe or will you stand at the shores of promise and look at the Giants and do your calculations and say no not me or will you go in say god I want to live a miraculous life I want your name to be exalted through me and when I'm done my days I want to leave behind something that will last starting in my home if that's the cry of your heart today here North Jersey as well and those that are at home online part of our home fellowships I would ask you in the main sanctuary we're gonna stand in just a moment took just make your way here and we're just simply gonna pray it's time to pray I was I was about 26 years old and I heard of a message something like this I guess and there was an altar call and I came I had nothing to give God nothing I was I couldn't speak publicly I remember saying God if you need a bad temper I've got that [Music] I had no resume and no no experience no skillset but I came and I said Lord you in the Bible you took a little boy's lunch and you fed 10,000 people with it you know there's 10,000 people in this church now I'm the little boy's lunch that God took to feed you today when I got on my knees and I remember there's only two of us and I just said Lord I have nothing but if you can work with nothing you know I'll go what you ask me to do I'll do and and when Nehemiah when the call first came to him then he prayed for provision and then he got on his donkey and he he headed to the mess unjust surveyed it now some of you going you're going into a mess right your community your family whatever it is maybe your own life and you don't need to know the plan God gave him the plan as he surveyed it he just he just rode around and he spent a day just driving around just riding around on his donkey just looking at the mass and some of it was so big donkey couldn't even cross it it was so much rubble but God gave him a plan and the rest is miraculous God God will give you a plan I want you to know he will give you a plan he will show you what to do and you just start at the beginning and do that and he began to be able to inspire others to work in the kingdom of God and get people who had just gotten so used to the rubble that they didn't even see it as anything that could bring glory to God but he began to inspire them it's a type of you going to your neighbor your brother your family saying you know God can do something marvelous in our family this year if we will just start and pray the Lord spoken to my heart that he wants to do something there's not too many people are gonna turn away from that people gonna listen to you say if we will rise up and build together God's going to do something that only God can do is gonna change our situation to change our family can change our future some view it will be a bigger a bigger environment than your own home it'll be maybe your community around you who knows there's no limit to God to what he will do but you are the answer of God to this generation you are the answer of God to the all of that all of the darkness that's trying to swallow our society you you are God's answer so father I just lift up God these precious souls to you here in the sanctuary people online people around the country around the world father in Jesus name we are your people we are the testimony of who you are that you have left in the earth the Lord we do confess that we have not lived up to what we should be none of us have but God we're willing to go we're willing Lord you give us the protection provision you give us the power Lord to fight against our enemies and we will go and we thank you Lord that in this little offering we bring to you Lord you can feed thousands with it we thank you Lord you can push back darkness with it we thank you God you can defeat Hell itself with the testimony that's here it's the Lord we put ourselves into your hand and we ask you to do what only you can do and bring glory to your own name through it Lord but all of us here at this altar we all want to chapter 9 moment where all we can do is sing and shout and dance the whole chapter and thank you for what you have done and what you have rebuilt and God you we can pray after that Lord don't let what I've done fade away when I do let it live on but many others be encouraged by it it's the Lord you'll answer these prayers all of them will God we give you the thanks and give you the praise in the mighty name of G

Channel: Times Square Church

Views: 19,325

Rating: 4.8821054 out of 5

Keywords: Carter Conlon, Sermon, Times Square Church

Id: q2ijQVEib3Y

Length: 39min 56sec (2396 seconds)

Published: Tue Nov 20 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

I've never listened to this guy, but David Wilkerson was great.