October 21, 2018 - Pastor Carter Conlon - Go And Gather The Empty

father I thank you for the touch of heaven this day thank you Lord for the anointing of your Holy Spirit thank you God that you are doing something Lord and you are inviting us into something that only you can accomplish would you give us the grace Lord to look away from our own littleness give us the grace to look away from our own thoughts and ideas help us Lord to embrace your kingdom the way you have clearly revealed it to us you've shown us the pattern of your kingdom you've shown us your heart help us Lord not to turn away from you when you're speaking to us give us the grace to go into this place of promise and power that you are now setting before us and I thank you for it with all my heart give me the anointing of your spirit Lord for I recognize it without you I can do nothing if you don't build this house my labor is in vain this is your church these are your people Lord you have to come and speak you have to bless you have to strengthen you have to guide gift of guard you have to lead and father I thank you with all my heart this day in Jesus name I gave this message the title go and gather the empty go and gather the empty second Kings chapter 4 I'm going to start with just verses 1 & 2 a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha saying your servant my husband is dead and you know that your servant feared the Lord and the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves so Elisha said to her what shall I do for you tell me what do you have in the house and she said your maidservant has nothing in the house but a jar of oil now here's the situation this particular woman had lived at a time at least when she was surrounded by the Word of God where the Word of God was preached where there was power behind the Word of God there was provision there was a hope and a few whatever reason the word of the Lord seemed to have been taken away from her household and one day an evil man I call it because only an evil man would come and take somebody's children an evil man arrives at the door and says your children belong to me from this day forward you don't have the resource and you don't have the power to stop me from taking your children and so she did what any mother would do in a moment like this and she cried out to the closest representative exposing her generation to the real heart of God which was Elijah who was the Protege in the sense of Elisha the prophet and she she shared her distress and he said to her now he had the power to do a lot of things you know the Elisha could raise the dead I mean he had the power of God but he turns to her and says what's in your house what do you have in your house and she responds by saying I've nothing all I have is a jar of oil you see she was unaware of what she had she was unaware of the power that was available to her if she would be willing to use what she had she was so focused on her distress and this is the way it is today for many people we are so focused on our distress that we are in danger of forgetting what we have what God has already put into our hands well we're living in a moment in America today where wickedness is rising and vile men and women are lifting themselves up to be admired as leaders among the people some 12 in verse 8 says the wicked prowl on every side when vileness is exalted among the sons of men and who can rationally debate but that vileness has raised itself up to be the standard of behavior in our modern day society from killing children in the womb to gender confusion of our young children in grade school to lying about the existence of God to forbidding our sons and daughters to pray in high school to radicalizing our young people against both God and their their country and our colleges who can deny but that we are in a similar situation today then this woman was in in her time the wicked are prowling on every side vileness is being exalted as righteousness and that which is good and holy and right and true is being cast down as evil and bigoted and given names derogatory names now vilest by definition if you go to Psalm 10 verse 2 it talks about who these vile people are verse 2 says the wicked in his pride persecutes the poor let them be caught in the plots which they have devised in other words and verse 9 says he lies in wait secretly as a lion in his den he lies in wait to catch the poor he catches the poor when he draws them into his net in other words the wicked used the poor to their own advantage they've no desire to ever alleviate the suffering of the poor they would rather the poor be poorer so they could be used for their own rising up and retention of power verse 4 it says the wicked and his proud countenance does not seek God God is in none of his thoughts the wicked man the wicked woman denies the ways in the right of God to rule verse 6 he said he has said in his heart I shall not be moved I shall never be an adversity the wicked is fixed on his or her goal believing that there is no power available any longer among the populace to stop him or to stop her verse 7 his mouth is full of cursing and deceit and oppression and under his tongue is trouble and iniquity not hard to identify the wicked in our generation simply by the cursing whether they're from Hollywood whether they're in politics they cannot speak without cursing they cannot speak with using derogatory four-letter words curse words because they cannot come outside of the bounds of Scripture they are what God says they are their mouths are full of cursing and deceit and oppression verse eight says he sits in the lurking places of the villages in these secret places he murders the innocent his eyes are secretly fixed on the helpless the wicked will fight for the right to murder the unborn in the womb considering it a right but God's Word defines it as wickedness there is no debate there is no argument it started with just maybe an abortion in the first few months and then it progressed now to a child is being partially born before scissors are rammed into the back of its skull now there's discussion about post birth abortion that's an ecologist folks just look it up yourself that means if a child is born and it looks like there's a deformity of defect or some kind of deficiency that child can be aborted after it's already alive and already born when you start killing there's no end to what society will become when you start justifying evil there is no end to the evil in a society he sits in the lurking places of the villages in the secret places he murders the innocent in other words in a place that's not visible to the eye his eyes are secretly fixed on the helpless there's no way of getting around this verse 11 he has said in his heart God has forgotten he hides his face he will never see the wicked lives in denial of the reality of God does not understand the danger of his or her position that there is a point in history where God says enough there is a point yes sir where you have entered the fields of the fatherless and the Lord Himself says now I'm going to arise and defend them in America today we're facing our own Goliath moment or each day menacing voice is challenging the reality and the power of God our taunting the nation saying you will serve us and if you don't think you will serve us then come and fight with us and see who wins we are in exactly the place where the children of Israel were with the Philistines on one side of the valley with Goliath a champion coming out and challenging the armies of God every moment we are exactly in the same place today that they were in their generation and so the question we ask ourselves today how do we meet this challenge what do we as the people of God do when we are being told we live in a post Christian society in other words the gospel used to be preached used to be believed used to be obeyed but that's that's yesterday we're now they're telling us we're in a post Christian society well I was in Seattle a week ago and there are new churches rising in this part of the country and if you saw the pictures on facebook there are thousands of young people they're hungry or for God than I've ever seen in my lifetime nobody told them that we're in the post Christian society to be in a post Christian society God has to be dead and God is not dead God is omnipresent in our country if you understand the teaching of Scripture God is everywhere there's nowhere that God is not he's omnipresent in this country God knows everything we call it omniscient and God is all-powerful he is able in a moment of time to sweep away the refuge of lies he's able to bring a spiritual awakening even if we look like we're dead and in a tomb and behind a stone he's already proved it in Scripture he can stand up in heaven this moment even as I stand in this pulpit and cry out all the way the stone one more time roll away the spirit of death roll away the sense of hopelessness roll away the rot and the decay that has so permeated the society and one more time he can call out to a fallen nation one more time he can call out to a backslidden society one more time the voice of God can call out to you and to me to make a difference in our generation this is who God is in second Kings in chapter four that's where this woman is at this time in her life and that's where the nation is at this point in its history the Word of God that used to be preached is gone this woman finds herself alone she has a heart for her children but at a creditor and I call him an evil man as I said earlier only the evil man would come into somebody's house and demand a person's children the creditors coming to take my two sons to be his slaves and Elijah said to her what shall I do for you tell me he said what do you have in the house and she said your maidservant is nothing in the house but a jar of oil I don't have if if God were to come to us today and we were to cry out and say Lord they're taking our children Lord the wicked have come and they're demanding our sons and daughters just last week a major consultation firm in America that's used as a resource for a lot of our organizations and our planning declared Christian parents a hate group a hate group Christian parents in America a hate group that should not be consulted when it comes to the education of our children a hate group that should not have the right to say my son my daughter is not being put in a class where they are going to be deliberately gender-confused a hate group this is the voice of Goliath this is the creditor coming to take our children and this woman said I only have a jar of oil in other words Oh God I have so little to fight this I have only my own salvation I have just a little bit of light and a little bit of life and yet this opposing force seems to be so powerful and it's coming to take our children it's taking our hope it's taking our future it's taking the presence and sense of God out of the nation and I don't know what to do I feel like a widow it's been so long since as a nation we heard the piercing word of God it seems to us that when the day Billy Graham stopped preaching the Word of God left our nation and so many could say this where's the voice where's the conscience of the nation gone where's the hope for our future how do we get our children back how do we stop this creditor from coming and taking our sons and daughters and making them slaves to unrighteousness Oh God how do we do this and I can hear in my heart the cry of this lady is Elijah's passing by I got I can visit in my mind he's he's just passing through town and she so he just comes out of her door and it's it's almost like one of those moments were where that my final hope is passing by and she begins to cry out to the only thing she knows of God to be left in the nation of course for us today the only thing left of God is God himself thanks be to God thanks feet of his holy name and he says to her what do you have in your house what have you got to fight against this creditor taking your children and she starts up by saying I've got nothing which isn't true she doesn't know what she has and we've been talking about that in this church for so long when the Lord came to Esther she had the same sense of understanding and said you were born who knows but you came to the kingdom for a time like this a decree of death has been passed over the nation the people of God are about to be plundered their children are about to be taken or killed and this girl is now approached by a message that was sent by God himself and she's swallowed up almost entirely by a sense of her own littleness but she had forgotten that she was the bride of the king we might not have a lot of strength we might have only a little bit of power left in our lives as a church age but we mustn't forget that we are the bride of the king we have access to the throne of God we have access to the one who has all power and all knowledge and all authority and similarly Gideon when God appeared to him he felt like he was the least of the least of the least and God called him a mighty man of resource because he had sent him to do something that God himself alone is able to do Elisha says to this Widow woman go and borrow vessels from everywhere from all your neighbors empty vessels do not gather just a few and when you've come in you shall shut the door behind you and your sons and pour it into all those vessels and set aside the full ones so she went from him and shut the door behind her and her sons who brought the vessels to her and she poured it out here is the plan of God gather every person you know who's empty listen to me gather your empty friends to gather your empty neighbors even send your children out to gather them you live in the housing area in New York City you're a single mother you've got two kids that you're worried about tell them to go and get all their friends they're hanging out with and tell them to bring them to your apartment and tell them to tell their friends God is going to fill you with the Holy Spirit God's going to pour his Holy Spirit into you I'm going to take the little bit of oil that I have and I'm going to lay hands on you and we're going to pray and we're going to believe that you're going to be filled with the Spirit of God this is the promise for our generation it's you and I in our littleness you and I having in a sense no plan no power and we have almost nothing about our own salvation in the little bit of oil that we have trying to give us sustenance and give us light God says here's my plan I want you to take the little bit you have and I want you to start to pour it into the empty and you're going to see that inside of you I am the River of Life we sang it today I have a river of life flowing out of me makes the lame to walk in the blind as he opens prison doors and sets the captive free I've got a river of life flowing out of me Jesus himself promised you come to me and out of your Billy out of your inward parts will flow this river of living water you don't wait for this divine moment don't wait until you're on top of the world don't wait until you've got a hundred million dollars in the bank you take the little bit you have and you call your empty neighbors and you start pouring that into them do it now do it now and the scripture says she went out and she gathered she and her sons and gathered them all into their house and when all these empty vessels were gathered around she she she got as many as he could get and started pouring into them that's what a spiritual awakening looks like that's what a revivalist is when the the littlest the least that you and I in the house of God we simply believe God and with a little bit of oil we have we start pouring into our neighbors we start pouring into the kids in our neighborhood we start pouring into others around us and when she began to do this the oil just kept coming it never she thought she had just a little bit of oil she didn't realize she was connected to a supply that never runs dry this has not came to pass when the vessels were full she said to her son bring me another vessel you watch what God will do you watch what God will do you watch the permitting that will erupt in your home you watch the children they are so hungry for God right now this is a divine moment there is an emptiness in our present society perhaps like none other than we've ever experienced you watch when you by faith just start to pour into their lives when pastor Teresa and I first got saved we didn't know any better so we just started laying hands on people and they started getting filled with the Holy Spirit I remember one time pastor Teresa had a Tupperware party anybody ever went to is that still happen today in our home and a lady a lady came with her husband and this lady was really hostile to the gospel and so you know I didn't want to be around this Tupperware thing sure her husband and I went upstairs and I started talking about what God had done for me we're brand-new Christians brand-new babes in Christ and he suddenly turns to mrs. I want that I want that in my life so I laid my hands on him I start to pray the next thing I know he hits the floor bang really hard he just I didn't know what was going to happen and and he's laying on the floor and he's speaking in tongues now downstairs the the the ceiling had literally shaken he'd hit the floor so hard there in the room right underneath us and pastor Teresa goes oh no my husband is at it again so she runs upstairs opens the door the room were in he sees this guy laying on the floor and his wife was starting to go upstairs this is what's going on there's nothing nothing everything's fine everything's fine we didn't know any better so we just reached out with the little life that we had and we started and and that man is walking with God still today that's many years ago he's walking with the Lord actually leads leads a men's group in his church and so I just thank God for the simplicity of faith you know no wonder no wonder Jesus told the Church of Ephesus I believe in Revelation he said you you're testing and proving you got your theology all down you you've got a lot of teaching and you know who's real and who's phony you know who's an apostle and who's not and you're doing a lot of works and even more than at the beginning but he says I have something against you because you've lost your first love you've lost the simplicity of walking with God you've lost the joy of of just being a vessel through whom God pours his life into others and I want you he said to get back because if you don't get back to that you'll lose your candlestick you lose your testimony you lose your light if you don't use the oil you'll lose it you lose the light yes you'll still have your salvation yes you'll still end up at the throne of God one day but what could have happened won't happen gather the empty now I'm not I'm not making up a message today God spoke this to my heart this is the plan for this country gather the empty and pour into them what you have and then pour into another one and pour into another one and pour into another one and pour into another one and you will see that the supply of life does not diminish this is the essence of victory and when she did this she came and told the men of God what had happened and he said go and pay your debt and you and your sons live on the rest in other words this is all you need to pay your debt for her in her particular case and to preserve your children this is all you need Church in America would you listen to me this is all you need to do now the rest is up to God you have only a little strength but he says I've set before you an open door and no man can close it all it's required as you walk through that door and by faith by faith by faith you begin to pour into empty vessels all around you by faith you believe that I'm going to do what only I can do by faith in the book of Acts chapter two there were 120 people gathered in an upper room emptied of themselves and realistically all they possessed was the oil of their own salvation you might say there were empty vessels empty men and women are empty of all of their sense of strength empty of all the promises they'd made to God empty of empty knowing that their their generation was about to be taken captive as they saw it by the godlessness of that moment it doesn't get any more godless than in season where they've just killed the son of God do you understand it's a godless moment in history and it's threatening now them it's threatening their children is threatening their families and they were just empty vessels I have no doubt about that in this Upper Room knowing their own limitations knowing their own sense of fear but they began to pray and I see God the Father borrowing these vessels from his son to fill them with the oil of his Holy Spirit and this is where the church started just empty people in an upper room belonging to Christ yet but having no strength and God says to his son may I may I borrow these memory said the father will send you the comforter now Bora these son may I bore these empty vessels that have gathered in your name may I bore them and do something through them and the son would say father you're more than welcome to them you can borrow them and the next thing you know this oil is pouring down into these lives of these hundred and twenty who had no strength in themselves but there was something other than themselves was going to be given them and then they left that upper room and walked out into the marketplace and began pouring that oil out first into three thousand then into another thousand then soon the Bible bears witness it was about five thousand new believers in Christ just from those 120 that started pouring out they didn't have the New Testament you understand me they didn't have the Bible we have they were the New Testament they were the Bible of that time it was God's Spirit in them and they were simply being used as vessels to pour into empty people it started with three thousand empty people coming back from a great religious celebration that left them empty coming back from a seeking of God that never satisfied suddenly encountering a hundred and twenty people who are willing to be poured into these empty vessels the next thing you know these people are on their knees there must have been an incredible water baptism service shortly after that must have been something that gathered people from everywhere they learned that it was not in their strength but in their weakness that his power would be made known go and gather your neighbors this is our hope now as a nation this is our hope for this church age we're now living it gather them you will be shocked at a hunger they are tell them that God will give them his Holy Spirit don't debate theology with them just say let me pray for you and let God pour into your life what he wants to pour into your life and as you begin to pray you watch what God alone will do that's where the prayer meetings are going to erupt in this country that's where they're going to start in this city it's going to be ordinary folks like you and I calling our neighbors together and say I'm gonna pray for you and God is going to fill you with his spirit it's single mothers calling all your children's friends into the house no matter what they're doing or how they're living say listen God has seen the hunger in you heart I'm gonna leave my hands on you and gods going to fill you with His Holy Spirit he's going to touch your heart he's going to cleanse you from the wrong that you have done he's going to give you a brand new life pour into them pour unreservedly you have a more resource than you know you have you watch what God will begin to do this church of 10,000 will turn into twenty and twenty will turn to 40 and 40 will turn to 80 and they'll have to start filling buildings all over the city you watch what God will do in this generation now I can either sit at home and stare at my little jar of oil and try to survive and and eat get out little wee bits here and there trying to survive hoping that nobody will captivate my children or I can do what God says God said to get your neighbors God said to go find them on the street corners God said to start pouring into the empty you can do it today when you leave this church you can start on the street today you can pray for somebody you can pray people are not as closed as you'd like to think they are there's a cry in the heart of this generation for something of stability because wickedness is exalting itself and the children of our generation are being taken captive proverbs 1:23 God Himself says turn at my rebuke and I will pour out my spirit on you and I will make my words known to you the rebuke is just simply this there's a better way to live your life than this there's something of God that he wants to give you let me pray for you you will you watch what will happen as you begin to pray for people may God give us the grace to move and to put this simple message into practice this is the word of the Lord for us today the little bit of oil that we have so I want to give you an altar call today and it's going to be real simple God give me the courage to do this give me the courage to be poured out give me the courage to look away from my own littleness my own lack God used me as a vessel to pour life into the empty you watch you watch what God will do this is a divine moment this is a moment where this darkness around us can be pushed back by the simplicity of faith in God it's a father I thank you Lord for just allowing me to speak from your heart this morning help us Lord to break through this paper wall that tries to keep so many sitting at home crying thinking they have nothing when you've already put the solution in their hands help us Lord to get our children back help us to push back the creditor and to see a spiritual awakening in this nation one more time give us the Grace and the courage that we need deliver us from the fear of man that causes us not to reach out to our neighbors help us to be bold and to make a declaration God will fill you with his spirit and father I thank you for this with all my heart in Jesus name we're gonna stand at the moment simple altar call God used me to pour out life to others for the last season I don't know exactly how long but it just it dawned on me as the Lord gave me this word for this morning that he's been encouraging us to step out of a sense of our own littleness and inability I see it now the Lord's been inviting us to be people who walk with Him and begin to know his power just in simplicity just the simplicity of Prayer simplicity of saying I know you're empty but God will fill you I'm gonna pray for you and God will fill you in the boldness you know the boulders not to draw away not to draw back so God will fill you he's gonna touch your life I'm gonna pray for you he's gonna touch your life it's gonna give you a reason to live he's gonna give you a new mind a new heart a new spirit that's the promise of God and don't make it complicated and don't shout at the people when you pray for them just pray for him just reach out we must we have to now reach out and escape our own littleness all through history mary had to believe she was gonna have a child even though she had never known a man Elizabeth had the belief she's going to bear even though she's past childbearing age Esther had to believe that the king would move in her favor even though she seemed like she was so small now in his sight Gideon had to believe that a great battle could be won even though he had really no resource other than he had the Word of God and he chose to obey Him and you look all through scripture that is the pattern of God that always has been the pattern of God he doesn't go to the strong he never has doesn't go to those who have plans because the plans have been are worthless and one more time one more time we find ourselves in the very same position that they were all in and one more time the Lord comes down to people just like you and I I just have a little bit of oil in in a house in the sense you know I got a little bit of light and I'm just hanging on to it and the Lord says don't hang on to it pour it out let's pour it out you watch what I will do with it when you start pouring it out before you know it you'll have a prayer meeting in your house then you'll have a time of discipleship you'll be able to open the Word of God and help people to find it they'll be inviting their friends and you do the same thing this is this is always what spiritual awakening looks like comes in simplicity and in power so father God I just pray for my brothers and sisters at this altar this morning Lord these are all vassals Lord that you put oil in God you have a supply and every life that doesn't ever exhaust itself and it decreases when we pour it out to others help us Lord to believe that this is a divine moment for this nation help us to believe God that our lives can make a difference even for our city help us God to escape our own littleness and a sense of worthlessness and to be able to reach out in your name give us a compassion that we need in our hearts Lord for people who are empty lord help us to care enough to be vulnerable before them give us faith to believe that as we simply obey you and we pray for them that you will fill their hearts you will wash away their sin you will give them your Holy Spirit and a new reason for living God Almighty God Almighty God Almighty God Almighty God Almighty be God Almighty to us and through us Lord for our generation help us Lord to escape our own sense of smallness don't let us stay there with our doors closed but send us out together as many empty vessels as we can find and help us to pour into them Lord God stun us astound us Lord with what you will do as we simply obey you Lord we thank you for this with all of our heart morning we praise you in Jesus name Amen and amen

Channel: Times Square Church

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Keywords: Pastor Carter Conlon, Sermon, Times Square Church

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Length: 37min 1sec (2221 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 23 2018